MONSOON SESSION - HOLDS THE PROMISE OF A WASHOUT
By Ruma Dubey
Usually, the Monsoon session of the Parliament is four-weeks but this time around, it is for a duration of thee and a half weeks, beginning on the 21st of July and schedules to conclude on 13th of August. With 17 Bills to pass, a belligerent Congress and less than a month session, this promises to be stormy though on the work front, could be a washout.
The BJP, when the UPA was in power, especially in the second term, almost the entire five years, did not allow the Parliament to function with walk outs and unruly behavior becoming the norm. Now it’s the turn of the Congress to show BJP how it feels when Parliament gets log jammed. But in this business of each wanting to “show” the other and scoring points, it is sadly the country and its people who are losing out.
At the same time, one cannot ignore the major issues in the hands of Congress – the Lalit Modi scam where Opposition is demanding the resignation of Vasundhara Raje and Sushma Swaraj. Nothing happened even though TV channels screamed themselves hoarse almost every night. But more sinister and scary is the Vyapam scam. Putting dud doctors in hospitals and dispensaries, this scam with its trail of dead and counting, is truly very evil and the Opposition needs to have answers. Vyapam is something for which all have to come together and root out this almost satanical scam.
Thus with two big issues on hand, Congress is all guns loaded and that means almost no work will get done. And there is tremendous amount of work; its been all talk and it is imperative for the BJP to get Bills passed or else this euphoria which is already some signs of ageing, will start withering away.
From the market and India Inc point of view, Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill needs to get the nod. Strangely, this is a Bill which was supported by the UPA during its term and now the very same will not allow the Bill to pass for scoring a point in politics. The Congress is asking for a better or purer version of the GST and is asking the BJP to drop the additional 1% tax. These gathering clouds thus indicate that this Bill could get scuttled.
Then there is the Land Bill and only the die-hard and fool hardy optimist would have thought that this crucial bill could get passed in the Monsoon session. This Bill, for which India Inc is rooting really hard is not likely to go through in this session.
Other crucial bills:
- Amendments to the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act,
- The Railways (Amendment) Bill
- The Waterways Bill
- Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill
- Benami Transactions (Prohibition) amendment Bill, 2015
- Replacement of the Negotiable Instrument Ordinance
At the end of the Budget session, this was the status of the Bills:
Indeed there is a lot of work to do and there is fervent hope that the Parliament does deliver or else the euphoria and optimism built over this period of time, would fizzle out like air out of a balloon. The build-up of the over past six months is very high but even if this session fulfills some of these expectations, the fee-good factor will remain intact.